EHJ
assumed that the Karāla-janaka referred to in the
1st pāda of today's verse is the Videha king to whom the
Buddha-to-be refers in Canto 13, Defeat of Māra:

For
if [Māra] succeeds in ovecoming me and expounds to the world the
path of final release, then is my realm to-day empty, like that of
the Videha king, when he fell from good conduct. (BC13.5; EHJ's
translation)

PO
notes further that Majjhima Nikāya (11.82) and Jātaka (541)
identify Karāla-janaka as the son of Nimi, the king of Mithila; and
that Karāla is said to have brought Nimi's royal line to an end.

In
the 2nd
pāda the various possible translations of hṛtvā
(carrying away, abducting) and kanyakām (girl, maiden, daughter)
call for comment.

In
BC4.76 jagāma, which I translated as “pressed for sex,” might
otherwise have been translated – insofar as the root √gam can
mean to attack, and depending on where one thinks Udāyin was coming
from as – “ravished.” “Ravished” sounds somewhat romantic
or poetic, and it is the kind of word that Udāyin might have used,
somewhat affirmatively, to describe Parāśara's
co-ercive – if non-violent – action.
The ancient legend seems to indicate that lusting Parāśara did not
in fact rape or ravish Kālī but rather persistently pressed her for
sex, to which she eventually consented. To have translated jagāma as
“ravished” might therefore have been to do Udāyin an injustice
that Aśvaghoṣa did not intend. Or it might have portrayed Udāyin
in just the light that Aśvaghoṣa did intend. Since √gam has such
a wide range of meanings, the translator into less ambiguous English words is put on the spot.

Similarly,
what is expressed in the 2nd pāda of today's verse by hṛtvā (from
the root √hṛ, to carry) could also cover a multitude of sins.
Insofar as √hṛ can mean “carry away” in the sense of
enrapture, charm, fascinate, hṛtvā brāhmaṇa-kanyakām could
conceivably means something as innocent and romantic as “he swept
the Brahman's daughter off her feet.” Insofar as √hṛ can mean
to take to one's self, appropriate (in a legitimate way), come into
possession of, marry, hṛtvā brāhmaṇa-kanyakām might mean
something as factual as “he married a Brahman's daughter.” But
insofar as √hṛ can mean to take away, carry off, seize, deprive
of, steal, rob,hṛtvā brāhmaṇa-kanyakām might means something
as sinister as “he abducted a young brahmin girl.”

The
multipilicity of possible meanings of √hṛ thus puts the onus on
the translator to get the register right. At the same time, the
translator's task is complicated by having to judge how a brahmin
like Udāyin might have seen the behaviour of a king like
Karāla-janaka. What, if any, was Udāyin's take
on the ancient legend? Did Udāyin think, for example, that to abduct
the virgin daughter of a high-caste brahmin would be much worse of a
sin than to carry off some low-born peasant woman who was not a
virgin? I suspect that, being a brahmin himself, Udāyin might have
thought exactly that.

EBC
and EHJ translated the 2nd pāda “carried off the Brāhman's
daughter” and “carried off a Brahman's daughter,” respectively.
PO brought out the more sinister undertones that Aśvaghoṣa may
have intended with “abducted a brahmin girl.”

In
the 3rd pāda, if we accept EHJ's assumption that
Karāla-janaka is the Videha king of BC13.5, then bhraṁśam would seem to suggest deśa-bhraṁśam – that ruin of
Karāla-janaka's kingdom which followed his backsliding from good
conduct (vṛttāc cyutasya; BC13.5). At the same time, bhraṁśam
might be read as synonymous with rogam (from √ruj, to break), which
means breaking up of strength, i.e., disease.

On
one level of irony, then, Udāyin's ostensible intention in today's
verse, which contains his final example from
ancient Indian legends, is again to affirm how very natural it
is to yield to sexual desire; whereas the sub-text that Aśvaghoṣa
might have intended us to read is, on the contrary, a reminder of how
ruinous it can be if one is directed by one's desire, rather than the
other way round. Having small desire may be the secret of happiness,
but being had by ill-directed desire is liable to be ruinous to one's
kingdom and one's health.

Today's verse and the previous two verses – 4.78, 4.79, and 4.80 – can thus be read as a group
of three whose themes are, broadly, aging, death and illness/ruin. Udāyin cites examples in ancient Indian legends where yielding to sexual desire was the cause of premature old age, death, and ruination. But on a deeper level of irony, just as in Canto 3 Aśvaghoṣa ironically re-cast the triple terror of aging, death, and illness as (1) the wisdom of growing old, (2) the challenge of giving up body and life, and (3) the ever-present and pervasive truth of faulty sensory appreciation, so too can the 4th
pāda of each of these three verses, it occurred to me when I stopped
and reflected on it, be understood as an affirmation of desire. Specifically, the final pādas of 4.78, 4.79, and 4.80 can each be read as a suggestion that the joy of sitting is a Zen practitioner's one heart's desire.

In that case, not ceasing to attach to one's first love (na tu seje na man-matham) – come hell or highwater, in sickness and in health – might be the main gist of the 30 years of effort of a bloke who manifests his attachment, as a rule, with four daily romps in Citra-ratha's woods – once before breakfast, once after breakfast, once in the afternoon, and once after dark.The three punchlines of these last three verses, then, when we eventually let ourselves be hit by them, deliver a punch that is so strong for this reason: Everybody and his dog knows that the Buddha's teaching is not to be greedy, because suffering is rooted in desire. That being so, it is all too easy to see the Buddha's teaching as encouraging us in the direction of sack-cloth and ashes, as encouraging us to be led unconsciously by the idea that desire is the enemy. But what the Buddha actually said is that a man who has small desire already has nirvāna. So the Buddha's teaching is – totally contrary to what impractical Buddhists are prone to think – totally affirmative towards desire, so long as the desire is moderate. As the expression of a view on small desire, or moderate wishing, the above paragraph might be contradicted or falsified by Dogen's exhortation: “Love Zazen as if to put out a fire on your head!”

Or, as an effort to clarify what the Buddha actually taught, it might be corroborated by Ānanda's words to Nanda:

Therefore if you want
enjoyment, let your mind be directed within. / Tranquil and
impeccable is enjoyment of the inner self and there is no enjoyment
to equal it. // SN11.34 // In it, you have no need of musical
instruments, or women, or ornaments; / On your own, wherever you are,
you can indulge in that enjoyment. // SN11.35 //

janaka:
mfn. generative, begetting ; m. N. of a king of videha or mithilā
(son of mithi and father of udāvasu )

ca:
and

eva:
(emphatic)

hṛtvā
= abs. hṛ: to carry off

brāhmaṇa-kanyakām
(acc. sg. f): the Brahman's daughter

brāhmaṇa:
m. one who has divine knowledge (sometimes applied to agni) , a
Brahman , a man belonging to the 1st of the 3 twice-born classes and
of the 4 original divisions of the Hindu body (generally a priest ,
but often in the present day a layman engaged in non-priestly
occupations although the name is strictly only applicable to one who
knows and repeats the veda)